Dan Houser claims GTA’s success also brought a U.S. government crackdown in tow: ‘they nearly shut us down'
Rockstar Games co-founder Dan Houser recently sat down in an interview on The Chris Evans Breakfast Show with Virgin Radio UK and looked back on the massive success of the Grand Theft Auto franchise. In the interview, he talked about how GTA’s rise to fame brought down the US government on Rockstar Games.
Dan Houser mentioned that GTA’s appeal to older audiences and its mature themes in an era when video games were mainly marketed to kids caused backlash from the U.S. government.
Houser told Chris Evans:
It was this industry that we were saying had been for children, and now we were saying it was for adolescents and grown men, as well as for children, but we weren’t servicing the children market. And it seemed to us not that outrageous, but some people thought it incredibly offensive.
Chris Evans suggested that the franchise’s success had quietened down the critics, but Houser stated that it led to further problems. Houser said, “No, that was not our experience at all. Our experience was that success created loads of problems. It was just worth it to have fun and do what you do.”
The conversation turned to the time when the GTA series made headlines and became a target of the U.S. government. Houser further explained:
“They decided we were the only people on the internet peddling pornography, apparently, which was ridiculous.
And they nearly shut us down. We got fined a huge amount of money. It was very disruptive to the company, and some of my team members quit, and it was really tough.”
Houser explained that “centrist democrats” wanted “a media bogeyman and couldn't go after Hollywood or rap music.” So, “an easy bogeyman that didn’t understand the system” became none other than Rockstar Games and the GTA series.
Evans stated, “So a bogeyman? Somebody to point at, saying, ‘Look, we’ve got all these real problems…’” Houser completed his quote and said, “‘We’ve finally figured out the problems in America, it’s these idiots.”
Houser didn’t specify the exact reason for the government and politicians' crackdown, but he may have been referring to the 2005 “Hot Coffee” scandal in GTA: San Andreas, when modders discovered a disabled mini-game in the game’s code.
The Hot Coffee mini-game was unplayable out of the box, but it prompted ESRB to re-rate the game from Mature (17+) to Adults Only. This escalated to the U.S. House of Representatives, where members voted for the FTC to investigate Rockstar’s parent company, Take-Two Interactive.
The FTC ultimately ordered Take-Two to re-release GTA: San Andreas with the mini-game pulled from the game’s code. It’s reported that Take-Two lost an estimated $30 million in recalling all shipped copies of GTA: San Andreas.
